Marthese here. Today I fulfilled a lifelong dream and went to Hogwarts!

We set off early this morning for Universal Studios Japan, as part of our cunning plan to`beat the crowd’. The plan failed, and we were met at the ticket booth by hordes of visitors! So, eyes on the prize (the Hogwarts turrets we could see in the distance), as soon as the gates opened we ran straight for Harry Potter world – and it was well worth the wait!

We had a wonderful time strolling the streets of Diagon Alley/Hogsmeade, perusing toys in Zonko’s, chocolate frogs in Honeydukes, and owls in the Owl Emporium. We even got to watch Ollivander choose a wand for a young visitor (or did the wand choose her?), right inside his shop. It was made even more wonderful because we were in Japan, and friendly staff stood waving and greeting us outside every shop. We felt like celebrities!

We had lunch at the Hogs Head, which had a vegetarian meal and allocated a staff member specifically to me to make sure I got my meal. Nothing beats this country’s customer service! That notion was not shared by the gentleman from Utah who sat next to us during our meal and said ‘It sure is good to hear some British accents after all this Japanese’. I’m sure you can imagine how impressed we both were.

Back to happier thoughts, the highlight of the day was the Harry Potter 4D roller coaster ride.  I’m not normally a theme park/ride kind of person but this one was brand new and we both found it absolutely exhilarating zooming around after Harry on his broomstick, and coming face to face with dementors and dragons! And the queue for the ride involved a walk through a spectacular recreation of Hogwarts – complete with chatty sorting hat and moving, argumentative paintings (all in Japanese of course!)

We topped the day off by grabbing a surprisingly delicious butterbeer. We checked out a bunch of other sights and rides but honestly, they’re not worth mentioning compared to Harry Potter world. Absolutely worth a visit.